This government’s procurement is an ugly mark on its pandemic response.

We’ve seen millions wasted on unusable PPE, a national Serco tracing system not reaching contacts it should, and a growing catalogue of cronyism.

But what's happened this week is a new low.
🔴THREAD🔴

This government outsourcing #FreeSchoolMeals leaves families with shocking replacements for normal vouchers. These photos are a disgrace.

But while they seem adamant to not feed hungry children, let's remind ourselves of contracts they have splashed on in recent months...
In April, the Tories gave £250 million to Ayanda Capital for 50 million face masks - which were later found to be unsafe for NHS workers.

Labour highlighted this as one of the early examples of cronyism given links to the Tory party.

https://t.co/ax6VpkbnG4
Matt Hancock has approved nearly £500 million in contracts to Randox - which employs a Tory MP as a consultant - including for 750,000 Covid testing kits which didn't work.

https://t.co/3E41aQyyqv
None will forget fast the contract awarded to his local pub landlord with no prior experience in medical supplies, all after a WhatsApp exchange.

Qualified and experienced British businesses from across the country have expressed their outrage at this.
https://t.co/GMAOTB9qAQ
Let's not forget the consultants paid £7,000 per day to run the Government's Test and Trace system - which still isn't anywhere near effective enough, with health professionals this week expressing more concern on its ability to curb spread.

https://t.co/M3fPHsHBJJ
In fact, this Tory government has spent just over £163,000 per consultant on Test and Trace - £375 million of taxpayer money.

Shamefully, stories like those in this thread led to a @NYTimes investigation into British crony contracts.
https://t.co/p27ywxFpIX
Labour's figures as far back as October revealed the Government handed over more than £1 BILLION to their friends and donors since March.

For far too many of these, transparency is severely lacking, so we're not always sure what they deliver
https://t.co/S7FHjWJtYP
All of this and more is why I called for the National Audit Office report.

This only confirmed the use of a VIP lane for contracts, but also gave clear recommendations for government to clean up its contracting.

We are yet to see an improvement.
https://t.co/mNMwqVpLVn
With the Tories spending so much on contracts that don't deliver - how on Earth can they justify THIS as adequate to feed hungry families during lockdown?

This once again, exposes how this Tory Government's overreliance on outsourcing lets people down. Damning.

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@franciscodeasis https://t.co/OuQaBRFPu7
Unfortunately the "This work includes the identification of viral sequences in bat samples, and has resulted in the isolation of three bat SARS-related coronaviruses that are now used as reagents to test therapeutics and vaccines." were BEFORE the


chimeric infectious clone grants were there.https://t.co/DAArwFkz6v is in 2017, Rs4231.
https://t.co/UgXygDjYbW is in 2016, RsSHC014 and RsWIV16.
https://t.co/krO69CsJ94 is in 2013, RsWIV1. notice that this is before the beginning of the project

starting in 2016. Also remember that they told about only 3 isolates/live viruses. RsSHC014 is a live infectious clone that is just as alive as those other "Isolates".

P.D. somehow is able to use funds that he have yet recieved yet, and send results and sequences from late 2019 back in time into 2015,2013 and 2016!

https://t.co/4wC7k1Lh54 Ref 3: Why ALL your pangolin samples were PCR negative? to avoid deep sequencing and accidentally reveal Paguma Larvata and Oryctolagus Cuniculus?